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WNBA Playoffs 2024: Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell on Her Dad – ‘I Am the Blueprint of What He Learned’

WNBA Playoffs 2024: Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell on Her Dad – ‘I Am the Blueprint of What He Learned’

Vaseline 1 month ago

INDIANAPOLIS – In the most successful year of her professional basketball career, Kelsey Mitchell must deal with her deepest loss.

It’s not clear on the court, where the guard has helped the Indiana Fever end a seven-season WNBA playoff drought. Mitchell, the WNBA’s No. 2 draft pick in 2018, has played for the Fever during their journey back to franchise relevance.

But the person she credits with building her game, her strength and determination, is not there. Her father, Mark Mitchell, a longtime high school and college basketball coach, died suddenly in March at the age of 56.

“That was my best friend, and we did everything together,” Mitchell told ESPN. “We experienced each other on so many levels. He was my dad, but we could talk about anything. And it sucks. Man, it sucks. It’s just, you know, you wish you could go back.

“I try to do my best emotionally to keep myself intact, knowing how much my father played a role in my life and being grateful for that. … It’s not always easy.”

Making things look easy is a trademark of Mitchell’s game and personality. She does it with every high-arc left three-pointer, her signature shot. With every shot to the basket and acrobatic finishing. With her smile on the field.

There weren’t many of those on Sunday, as the WNBA playoffs tipped the Fever, who fell 93-69 in Game 1 of their best-of-three series to the No. 3 seed Connecticut Sun. Mitchell finished with a team-high 21 points, but shot 2 of 10 from behind the arc. They and the sixth-seeded Fever will need a better performance on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) to keep their season going.

But in a year of heartache and triumph for Mitchell, she knows perseverance.

“She deserves all the praise she gets and more,” Fever coach Christie Sides said. ‘But she keeps to herself and doesn’t let you know how she really feels. She could be having a really bad day, but I won’t know about it. She will always say she is doing well.”

Mitchell’s even-keel during this 20-win season is the same as in 2022, when the Fever were franchise-worst at 5-31. That year, former Indiana star Tamika Catchings resigned as general manager, the Fever underwent an in-season coaching change and had to play in different arenas as their regular home, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, was renovated.

Meanwhile, A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, the player drafted No. 1 ahead of Mitchell in 2018, praised her and how Mitchell’s play has impacted the Fever.

“I remember our families battling the journey together. It took a while for her and Indiana. But seeing someone stay the course, and now it’s paying off. … I just smile But. I’m so happy for her.”

A’ja Wilson on Kelsey Mitchell

“The joy she plays with, the fun she has with others — it’s contagious,” Wilson said. “I remember our families battling the journey together. It took a while for her and Indiana. But seeing someone stay the course, and now it’s paying off. … I just smile but. I’m so happy for her. Even when we played in Indiana, I was like, ‘Go ahead, dawg!’ This is who she is, and the world sees it.”

Mitchell never seemed to feel sorry for himself or lament how a draft position can lead to drastically different experiences. Wilson won her third MVP award on Sunday, has captured back-to-back league championships and has been WNBA Finals MVP.

The Aces won 26 regular-season games in 2022; the Fever had won a total of 36 games in Mitchell’s first five years in the WNBA.

For Mitchell, the biggest compliment is being called a ‘hooper’: someone who gives the game everything, no matter how changeable the circumstances.

“My father trained me all my life,” she said. “I am the blueprint of what he learned. It’s all me.’

Mark Mitchell played football at Eastern Kentucky, where he met his future wife, Cheryl, who played basketball. Along with her three siblings, they have always been a family “with sports in our DNA,” Kelsey said. She grew up in Cincinnati and loves the atmosphere and basketball history.

Mitchell attended Ohio State, where her twin sister Chelsea also played and her father was an assistant to coach Kevin McGuff.

“Her father was a great games teacher and very good at developing skills,” McGuff told ESPN. “She worked on her skills from the moment she could walk. It was wonderful to see how much her game grew under his guidance.”

Mitchell arrived in Indiana in the midst of an extended franchise low. Catchings retired as a player in 2016 and Indiana did not return to the playoffs until this month. In four of Mitchell’s six seasons before 2024, Indiana won six or fewer games.

The team’s struggles obscured the growth in Mitchell’s game. But last season, under new coach Sides and No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston, Indiana improved to 13 wins and Mitchell was an All-Star. When Caitlin Clark was the No. 1 pick this season, the Fever had the talent needed to be a playoff team.

Clark scored an NCAA record 3,951 points on 548 3-pointers at Iowa. Mitchell had 3,402 points and 497 3s at Ohio State. They both played for colleges in their home states and were Big Ten Players of the Year three times. And since the end of the Olympic break, Mitchell and Clark have been the most dynamic offensive backcourt in the WNBA; both finished the regular season with an average of 19.2 PPG.

“She’s someone I’ve tried to listen to and ask for advice,” Clark said. “Because she has it, and that will help us build our relationship.” We both have each other’s best interests at heart, and it was a lot of fun for me to play with her.”

Mitchell will be an unrestricted free agent after this season. It is not certain where her future will unfold.

But looking back at how this season started – 1-8, with Mitchell dealing with a lingering ankle injury and a broken heart – it’s gratifying that the Fever put the pieces together while honoring her father doing what he loved most. : Kelsey balls out.

“She’s one of the toughest people I’ve ever known or played with,” said Fever teammate Katie Lou Samuelson, who also competed with Mitchell in USA Basketball 3×3 events. “She is such a life force, such a pure soul. We try to be there when she needs it. But she was able to pull through.”

Mitchell visits her mother and family in Cincinnati, about a 110-mile drive from Indianapolis, whenever she can. And sometimes she isolates herself by watching favorite shows like “Law and Order: SVU.”

Mitchell finds refuge on the hardwood and all the connective tissue she will forever have with her father. He is not there for the sold-out crowd this season, the long-awaited love is raining on the Fever again. But Mitchell said she’s confident he knows it’s happening.

“When I have sadder moments, I live in them and try not to run from them. Because it’s healthy to let those emotions out too,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll ever get over it; the loss will always be with me. But my father will always be with me too.”